


They don’t know about us

by yellowbutterflies



Series: F1 heist au [9]
Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, Cute, Falling In Love, Fluff, Heist AU, Hiding, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Pining, Robbery, Secret Relationship, Secrets, but it’s not a main character, really don’t know what to tag here, someone gets shot dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 03:01:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29429253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yellowbutterflies/pseuds/yellowbutterflies
Summary: When Lance joins Carbon the first friend he makes it Esteban, then he realises he is in fact in love with him. When Esteban returns the feelings they had to hide or do they?OrAnother part of my heist au, Lance’s backstory
Relationships: Esteban Ocon/Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas & Lance Stroll
Series: F1 heist au [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2109519
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	They don’t know about us

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this [Tumblr post](https://eight-hearts.tumblr.com/post/639492987051802624/can-you-please-post-the-link-to-the-f1-heist-au)
> 
> Thanks to [@formulola](https://formulola.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Title taken from one directions song “they don’t know about us” which I listened to while I planned this story.

Lance knew that when he first came to Carbon he was judged by who his father was, his father was a millionaire. Everyone knew of his father which meant everyone knew of him. Lance’s father loved to put him in the spotlight, well until he was caught stealing a car and ended up with a criminal record. Technically, everyone in Carbon had a criminal record but Lance was the only one who had ever been caught. When he was caught Lance’s father made sure to publicly announce he was being cut out of the will and his father would have nothing to do with Lance anymore. That ended up with Lance becoming homeless very quickly at the age of 16 until he was found by Lewis.

Lewis had told Lance how he saw the footage of him stealing the car and wanted him in Carbon. He was told he’d get more money from this than he ever would his dad. Lance excelled in the junior programme and then in May of 2017, at just the age of 18, Lance was promoted to a senior.

Esteban was the first friend Lance ever made when he was promoted. Esteban himself had been promoted two years prior to this, just as Lance was joining the junior programme. Esteban was nice to him, made sure he knew where everything was and who everyone was. He made sure Lance was comfortable at all times. It was nice to have a friend like this, it wasn’t like everyone hated Lance but he knew they judged him because of his father.

He saw the looks he was given by the other members, especially when they realised who his father was. Lance was aware that one of them had actually asked Lewis why he hired Lance with knowing who his father was but nobody knew Lance’s side of the story. Nobody had asked. Lewis hadn’t asked, but Lewis hadn’t judged.

Lance didn’t enjoy being in the spotlight whatsoever. He didn’t want to take over the family business, he wanted to do his own thing which just happened to be stealing cars and making mischief. He had been shunted in front of camera from a very early age and Lance couldn’t help but think maybe it was all that attention that made him turn to crime.

They didn’t know how at 11 Lance had begged his father not to be in the spotlight more times than normal and how his father had just sent him away and told him to do his Latin homework. They didn’t know how people made friends with Lance just because his father was rich and then when they realised Lance wasn’t going to give them any money or pay for anything, they’d leave. Lance had never made a friend who wanted to be friends with Lance rather than his dad’s money but that all changed with Esteban came up to him on the first day.

“I saw your skills, Lewis showed us the video yesterday. You’re good. I’m Esteban by the way, your office is next to mine.” Esteban held his hand out to which Lance shook it.

“I’m Lance but you already knew that.” He smiled at Esteban who smiled back.

“If you need anything please don’t hesitate to come find me, I’m more than happy to help you.” Esteban walked Lance to his office in favour of Lewis who had seen them talking and just nodded at Esteban before leaving them.

Esteban had checked on Lance twice that day, once at lunchtime to see if he wanted to come to the cafeteria. Lance got to meet the people Esteban usually sat with, Nicholas, Carlos and Antonio. All of them accepted Lance into their group pretty quickly. Esteban had also checked upon Lance at the end of day, he made sure Lance wasn’t confused about anything and even walked him back to his apartment to made sure he wasn’t lost. Lance soon learned Esteban’s apartment was only down the corridor from his.

When Lewis had gotten wind of their friendship he started pairing them together more, that’s what Lewis did. Anybody who had a friendship tended to get paired together but if they were dating Lewis never paired them together unless he had too. He didn’t want anything to go wrong and cause a tear in the relationship. 

Lance liked working with Esteban, the older’s job was more Hitman and gun stuff while Lance’s was cars. They just fit together, Lance would be Esteban’s getaway drive when he was assassinating someone or stealing some guns. It just worked and so did they. 

Lance soon realised that he fell for Esteban in a very short amount of time and he was prepared to keep that quiet. In fact he had to keep that quiet. He didn’t think he was anything but straight but then again his father had made him grow up around women. Lance was always pressed to find the right women and his father had told him on many occasions that if he needed help finding a good wife, he was more than happy to do that.

He found himself wanting to be nearer and nearer to Esteban as the days went by. The older man just drew him in, like he was a magnet and Lance was the metal. Lance hoped his crush wasn’t obvious, if it was Esteban never said anything. Esteban acted normal. He’d come say hello to Lance every morning as he passed his office, he’d stop by at lunch time to walk with him and he’d wait at the end of the day for Lance to be finished. 

Esteban was everything Lance ever wanted. He was everything Lance craved. He was everything Lance needed. 

And Lance didn’t know it but he was everything Esteban ever wanted too. 

He didn’t find out Esteban wanted him until one time they were in Lance’s apartment. It was after the bank heist that they did with the new rookie trio. Lance had been pining after Esteban for almost three years now. Esteban had enough of Lance not saying anything. 

So as they were celebrating the heist, just the two of them, Esteban came over to Lance and kissed him. He gave Lance no warning whatsoever, so it took Lance’s brain a good minute to catch up before kissing back. 

“Woah.” Lance blinked at Esteban. 

“I should have done that ages ago.” Esteban smiled at Lance, Lance smiling back. 

“I should have too.” 

“I want you to be mine.” Esteban said. 

“I am yours.” Lance replied. “But we can’t tell anyone otherwise we can’t work together and I enjoy that.”

“Okay, I can do that for you.” He kissed Lance’s head. 

Keeping it a secret wasn’t easy, Lance just wanted to be able to walk into Esteban’s office and kiss or hug him whenever he was feeling stressed or clingy but he couldn’t. That was hard, keeping it from everyone. After Esteban, Valtteri was his best friend. The two of them had worked together on missions before. Lance found it hard to keep it from him, he was sure Valtteri knew he was hiding something from him. Lance was thankful that if Valtteri did know, he didn’t question it. 

Lance yearned to be able to tell Valtteri about all the cute things Esteban would do for him, like when Lance had a bad day the next day Esteban would wake him up with breakfast in bed. It always put Lance in a good mood for the rest of the day and he appreciated that. He wanted to tell Valtteri about all the things he planned to do for Esteban, like the time he woke up earlier than him and surprised him with breakfast in bed. 

It wasn’t easy sleeping in each other’s apartment without anybody knowing. They pretended they were working late together or just having a sleepover or they’d sneak out of their own apartment late at night when nobody would be watching the apartment corridor cameras and sneak into the others apartment. 

But then one night, everything fell through. Neither of them had realised Lewis was working late that night, along with Valtteri. The two of them going over security plans for a future mission. Neither of them knew they were working in the security room. It was Valtteri who had seen them, Lewis’ head buried in blueprints. Esteban had gone round to Lance’s apartment, the younger one giving him a kiss at the door. 

“Lewis..” Valtteri couldn’t take his eyes off the camera.

“Yeah man?” Lewis came over, just as Lance was pulling Esteban into the apartment. 

“How long have they been a thing?” He asked.

“I don’t know.” Lewis blinked at the screen.

“Lance just kissed him.” Valtteri said. 

“I’ll speak to them in the morning.” Lewis replied. 

“Why would my friends hide this from me?” Valtteri questioned nobody in particular but Lewis answered. 

“Well, they enjoy working together and maybe they thought you’d tell me. You know my rules on couples working together.” 

“That’s a good but stupid rule, you know that?” Valtteri looked at him. 

“I know, I just don’t want anyone getting hurt.” Lewis replied. 

“Maybe you should try flexing that rule with them, if they are a thing. They’re stronger than most around here.”

“Maybe.”

So the next morning when they were all called into a meeting, at the end Lewis asked Esteban and Lance to stay behind. They both shared a confused look with each other but remained quiet. Valtteri stayed behind, everyone else left including Sebastian which surprised Lance. Sebastian always stayed behind with Lewis. 

“I’m going to ask you a question and I need you to be honest, okay?” Lewis looked at them. 

“We didn’t do anything wrong, did we?” Lance asked, getting a little nervous feeling in his stomach. 

“Not at all. You’ve done nothing wrong, I just need you to answer this honestly.” Lewis said. They both nodded in response. “Are you two a thing? Like dating.” Lance looked over at Esteban and just blinked. Esteban nodded at Lance, Lance nodded back. 

“We are.” Esteban didn’t look Lewis in the eye. “We didn’t tell you because we thought you might split us up in missions.”

“We figured.” Lewis replied.

“How did you find out?” Lance questioned. 

“Valtteri saw you kissing on the cameras last night. You could have just asked to move in together. Even if you just said you were doing it as friends, I wouldn’t have minded.” 

“We just like working on missions together.” Lance mumbled. 

“I know which is why I’m going to do a trial period with you. Now that I’m aware of you being together, I’ll be more careful when I pair you. I’ll still pair you, but if it’s a high risk situation the chances of you being paired together will decrease. Does this seem fair?” 

Lance and Esteban looked at each other, sharing a silent conversation before they turned back to Lewis and nodded. 

“Okay, I’ll see how you do on your next mission and then I’ll make my final decision. Now I do believe one of you has some moving to do?” Lance smiled at him, they both left but Lance went back in, leaving Esteban in the corridor. 

“Thank you.” He hugged Lewis, the leader laughed and hugged back. Lance then turned to Valtteri and hugged his best friend. “Come help us, we have some catching up to do.”

—————————

Lance was nervous on his next mission but that’s only because he was being watched by Lewis. He hadn’t been watched since the beginning, since his early days of Carbon. 

Esteban and Lance had been assigned with a simple heist, there was a popular convenience store that they were robbing from. They knew the shop keeper kept his money in the back, Pierre had hacked into the cameras for them. This shop keeper really wasn’t smart if he kept his money in the back and his cameras could easily be hacked into. 

Lance drove them and parked around the corner, they were doing this mission at night. There would be less people around and the shop would be closed. Esteban winked at Lance before getting out of the car, leaving Lance a blushing mess. Lance took a deep breath before getting out of the car too. 

Esteban was picking the lock on the door when Lance arrived, they chose the back entrance as it was more secluded. Esteban got in very quickly. 

They didn’t expect the shopkeeper to be there still, Lance thought very quickly and shot him in the head before he even had time to react to them. 

“Good one, Lancey.” Esteban smiled at him, Lance blushed at the nickname before shooing Esteban away. 

The two of them started raiding, they found all the money and took anything else valuable. There were two iPads the shopkeeper used, Lance radioed Lewis to get Nicholas to meet them when they got back. 

It was a very quick job, they were out in ten minutes and back in the car. As Lance drove away, he heard sirens in the distance. He wasn’t surprised, his gun didn’t have a suppressor, there was no point. 

Lance drove quickly and efficiently, he took some back alleys to avoid police and suspicion. They arrived back at headquarters safe and sound. 

Lewis and Nicholas were waiting for them upon arrival. Lance handed Nicholas the things that needed to be sold and his fellow Canadian left quickly. Lewis smiled at them. 

“That was the second quickest time anybody here has ever robbed a convenience store. I am very impressed.” 

“What does that mean?” Esteban asked. 

“I’ll continue pairing you two up, unless it’s a high risk situation.” Lewis told them, he patted them both of the shoulder before leaving them alone.

Esteban turned to Lance with the biggest smile on his face, Lance couldn’t help but smile more than he already was. Esteban approached him, picked him up and spun him around before kissing him hard. Lance kissed back. 

“I’m so proud of you, Lancey.” He smiled. 

“I’m so proud of you, Este. We did it!” Lance kissed him again. 

“We don’t have to hide anymore.” Esteban commented. 

“No we don’t.” Lance replied and kissed him again. 

“Are you going to stop kissing me?” Esteban smiled. 

“Never. Ever. Ever.” He smiled back before kissing him again, Esteban laughing at him as he did but kept a tight grip around his waist. 

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is [@landonorrisgeorgerussell](https://landonorrisgeorgerussell.tumblr.com/) If you want to come say hello or make a request for a fic


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